Secular Historian: “They Couldn’t Invent Jesus.”

Sunday, February 15, 2026

Feb 8, 2026

Tom Holland is one of the world's most respected historians. He isn't a preacher. In fact, he grew up as a "precocious atheist" who wanted to debunk the BIBLE.

But after decades of studying the ancient world "f rom the Caesars of Rome to the rise of Islam " he came to a shocking conclusion.

Posted by Corky at 11:12 AM | 4 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

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Thread link is a short video... excerpts from a brilliant conversation at the below link:

www.youtube.com

with timestamps

#1 | Posted by Corky at 2026-02-15 11:15 AM | Reply

Part of the conversation that interested me, btw, is that of Cultural Christians... those who live by Jesus' parables of morals and ethics without identifying as believers.

Those sayings only seem like common sense to them.

"I mean, I think basically that most of
us in this country are cultural
Christians just instinctively.

Uh, and I
think there is no one who's more
culturally Christian than the atheist...

who says, "I don't need some, you know,
bronze age sky [music] fairy telling me
how to behave because I just know how to
behave. I'm a good person.

I don't need
the Bible to tell me to care for the
weak and the poor and the refugee...
manifesting the fact that they are the
result of centuries worth of biblical
weathering.

So in a sense, [applause]
in a sense to be a cultural Christian is
still to believe stuff.

It's still to believe stuff that to say
a Roman, a pre-Christian Roman would
have seemed mad and not at all
self-evident."

- Tom Holland (about 5 mins in)

#2 | Posted by Corky at 2026-02-15 11:30 AM | Reply

(you'll need to restart the link in #1... my Editor sucks)

#3 | Posted by Corky at 2026-02-15 11:46 AM | Reply

Corky,

What's your take on the theory that the ancient Romans used the Roman historian Josephus to "create" the Messiah so as to appease/control
the rowdy Jews of that time.

A lot of cynical critics like to throw that out, so as to try to debunk Christianity.

Have you heard or read about this?

#4 | Posted by shane at 2026-02-15 12:53 PM | Reply